Two main cons: 1) If you don't like the default UI it takes 5-10 mins to customize; 2) Not all of the really useful functions are included in the main program, you have to download plugins

However after the initial setup it can do just about everything, like

- create autoplaylists that automagically update when you add/delete files (my entire music folder is in an autoplaylist)- playlist tabs (I have 11 playlists open right now), can drag tracks between playlists- supports a **** ton of formats (you might have to download free plugins for certain formats like aac/alac)- tagging (not sure how easy it is to add album art, since out of habit I use MP3tag for that. there's a plugin that's supposed to download artwork)- can group tracks by album (or artist, or genre, or date, or whatever)- can sort by file location instead of tags (it's silly but my file folders are already properly alphabetized, adding custom sort tags is a waste of time)- ipod support (via foo_dop plugin) - you can send flac/ogg to your iPod, it will convert it to mp3 as it loads- as for other devices, I have an old Cowon iAudio X5 that I load by drag/dropping tracks directly from foobar. so i imagine you can do that for any device that doesn't need special pain in the butt software to load properly, just normal file operations (like an external drive)- delete/move/rename/copy/merge files, convert formats, burn/rip cds, etc.- plugins are easy to install/uninstall 'cause they're usually just one file

Sorry for the late replay, I have found this thread just now and since I was indirectly mentioned, I thought I should leave few words.

QUOTE (FunnyFish @ Nov 1 2010, 13:45)

The scripting possibilities are endless, but can create problems. If you are not daunted by a little bit of programming, you probably won't get into trouble, but if so, the great amount and variety of ready-made scripts can be difficult to use, as documentation is mostly lacking. Sometimes you have to go through hundreds of forum posts to get the info you need. Examples: RegExp and MagicNodes, two of the most useful add-ons. Documentation for these is simply almost entirely absent. It must be said that this is not inherent to MM itself, but by the script developers, and if you are satisfied with the vanilla features, this is not a problem at all. But if you are somewaht of an organisational fanatic like me, you can end up with the situation that you are wondering "why doesn't the program re-organise my tracks like I expect it to do?" Well, maybe you put one comma too many or too few in your mask or script!

If you are changing a lot of tags (500+, let's say), database errors are likely to occur. These are never fatal, but add a sense of instability to the program.

Thanks for stating the mentioned MediaMonkey's add-ons as two of the most useful, I am glad that you like them since I am their author. Well, I think that the rest of your post deserves some further explanations:1. I am writing those add-ons in my free time mostly on users requests, very rarely because I need them, and I have almost none financial benefit of that.

2. English is not my mother language and it is much easier and less time consuming for me to write on your request some mask for Magic Nodes or some preset for RegExp then to write any more detailed user manuals for them.

3. There exists the user-manual in the PDF format for Magic Nodes and although it is obsolete, written for the old version of add-on, it still could be used for better understanding about this add-on. The first post of the RegExp dedicated thread on the MediaMonkey forum has also some kind of usage manual.

4. These add-ons are very flexible exactly because of their possibilities to use SQL (Magic Nodes add-on) and Regular expressions/VBScripts expressions (RegExp Find & Replace add-on). You could hardly use such things as SQL or Regex in some simple fashion. Of course, if you put some comma too many or too few in the Regex or SQL code that you would get an undesired result. If you want to use them with their full power, you need to know their syntax.

5. You could create many Magic Nodes masks without knowing SQL code at all, also you could create RegExp presets without knowing Regex/VBScript at all. In many cases it is enough to use just their graphical interface to create simple masks and presets. For example, if you want to display a tree node with artists grouped by the first letter and albums sorted by the release year, you could use GUI with its dialog box and with just few mouse clicks you could create this simple mask: Album Artist [A]-[Z], Album (by Year)\<Album Artist|Trim:1>\<Album Artist>\<Album|Sort by:Max(Year)>. You need the keyboard just to give a name for such mask. Same state for RegExp - you could use it as any Replace dialog box in any text/word editor like MS Word. For example, you could specify "_" in the Find what text box and " " (space character) in the Replace with text box and you would get replaced all underscores with blanks in the specified tag/field. I think it cannot be simpler than that.

6. There are currently included 320 predefined masks for Magic Nodes and 207 presets for RegExp, from the simple ones to the very complex. For example, you have a mask (by random choice) which displays a tree node for "Artists with 50 or more years between oldest and newest song". Or, you have a preset (again, by random choice) which could "Copy featuring artists from the end of Artist to the end of Title and put them within [ ]".

7. If you need something which is not covered with predefined masks/presets, and you don't know how to create the new ones, you always could post your request in their forum threads and I or someone else could give you an answer (as I did recently).

8. Speaking of database errors when changing a lot of tags (500+), I really cannot say that this is "likely". In fact, I cannot remember when I got such kind of error. It would be much more helpful and appreciated if you report such thing into the related thread in the MediaMonkey forum instead of speaking about that on such places as this forum without giving a knowledge about that to me or authors of the program. We cannot know about all or any bugs if you don't report them.

By the way, I don't want to discus about alternatives to some program. I think it is matter of some personal preference what software could use. I understand that someone prefers a good looking program with simple interface and just few options, but I am not that kind of user - I much more prefer the flexibility. Well, I know that MediaMonkey is not ideal - I am using foobar for conversions, CDex for CD ripping, MP3Gain for leveling, Winamp for audio reproduction, The KMplayer for video reproduction... However, as an organizer/tagger, MediaMonkey is my personal choice. Especially combined with my own add-ons